Anyone interested in the security of our nation should spend twenty-two minutes watching this You Tube presentation. It’s excellent. Inadvertent leaks of sources and methods are bad. They are vile and beneath contempt when for political purposes. The Administration’s leaks
could have had no non-political purpose.

This You Tube video entitled Dishonorable Disclosures takes twenty-two minutes to watch, not counting loading time. As noted on Power Line yesterday,

It is dynamite: the production values are excellent, and the message is overpowering. The video is 22 minutes long, but trust me: it is riveting, and goes fast. You should watch the whole thing, to appreciate how dishonorable the Obama administration is when it comes to national security.

It should be watched to its conclusion. It will probably load more quickly if the “You Tube” icon at the bottom of the frame is clicked, rather than the white triangle at the center of the embedded version presented here.

President Obama has neither worn a military uniform nor had any personal acquaintance with military intelligence gathering. He has no first hand knowledge of what our troops or intelligence operatives do or the prices they pay for doing it. I have no idea what he may have been thinking beyond personal political gain. Had he consulted any non-political advisor knowledgeable as to military intelligence and the national security implications of what he was about to do — about how difficult it is to get sources and how necessary it is to conceal their identities — even he might not have proceeded as he did. As it was, he apparently felt an overwhelming need to be portrayed as the strong leader he is not. In consequence, the Pakistani physician who revealed the location of Osama bin Laden is now rotting in a Pakistani jail for a term of more than three decades. Recruiting intelligence sources willing to take risks of such betrayal by the Commander in Chief or those working directly for him, in addition to the normal risks inherent in telling our intelligence people what they need to know, will be far more difficult than before. Our own operatives and their families have also been put in danger.

Has President Obama no decency? Think for a moment of Kipling’s poem Tommy.

I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.

We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.

In the situation he has created, would President Obama agree with this suggestion: “Please to walk in front, sir” when we next go into battle? Into a situation such as the killing of Osama bin Laden? I doubt it.

There is hardly any excuse for such behavior by an Army private. For the Commander in Chief to engage in it for any purpose is inexcusable. For him to do it for his own political advantage is vile and beneath contempt.

UPDATE, August 17th:

Here’s the Team Obama response of August 16th to the Dishonorable Disclosures video. It was brought to my attention by an e-mail from the Obama Truth Team over the signature of war hero Senator John Kerry. At the top of the piece this statement appears:

When you’re faced with someone who misrepresents the truth, you can find all the facts you need right here—along with ways to share the message with whoever needs to hear it.”

It’s comforting to learn that all necessary truth and wisdom can be found in one place, the Barack Obama Truth Team website, and that there is therefore no reason to look beyond it.

The Truth Team piece has twolinks, both to a great bastion of fascinating objective reporting, Mother Jones. According to the article at the first link, the video originators used military logos without authorization. According to the article at the second link some of the video supporters, conservative miscreants, have opined that Islamists are dangerous. Both Mother Jones articles attack the originators of the video but don’t deal with its substance in any meaningful way. I won’t analyze them further here but instead suggest that anyone interested read them.

The piece at the Obama Truth Team site restates some of the Mother Jones charges but provides no useful information about the matters raised in the video beyond characterizing it as rife with partisan, Swift Boat style falsehoods.

Here’s the text of the Kerry letter:

Friend —

It’s easy to look at the attacks, smears, and lies being told about President Obama and his record and say, “Come on, that’s ridiculous. No one could possibly believe that.”

Trust me: You and I learned the hard way eight years ago this August that in the new world we’re living in — one with 24-hour news cycles, the internet, blogs, the echo chamber, and now the new Citizens United-fueled Republican money machine — even completely baseless attacks can stick if people don’t call them out quickly enough. No matter how self-evidently false the attacks are, or how disreputable the people telling them may be, there’s no attack that can’t take hold.

Seeing the new outrageous attacks made against President Obama from a shadowy Republican-allied veterans group called OPSEC, which take issue with the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, remind me all too well of the notorious “Swift Boat” attacks I faced in the 2004 campaign. I honor and appreciate the service of my fellow veterans, but a false attack is a false attack — no matter who’s making it.

It’s not enough to wish them away or dismiss them because they come in part from “birthers” who still won’t concede that President Obama was born here in the United States.

No, we need to get moving now — before it’s too late.

Take a look at this blog post that fact-checks these most recent smears, and be sure to share it with others:

Throughout this campaign, Mitt Romney and his allies have shown that if the truth isn’t favorable to them, they have no problem claiming the opposite — and the reality is that President Obama has a foreign policy record that is among the strongest in recent memory.

In 2008, then-Senator Obama said he’d end the war in Iraq in a responsible way and refocus on taking out Al Qaeda’s leaders.

You and I know he’s followed through in a big way on both those promises.

In contrast, the Republicans have a candidate with absolutely no foreign policy experience, who thinks Russia is our “number one geopolitical foe” and who is advised by people who think — and have repeatedly said — the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia are countries that still exist. Romney’s two major foreign policy speeches never even mentioned Al Qaeda once, and he’s prone to stumbles when he steps onto the foreign policy stage. (He can’t even manage to visit London without causing an international incident!)

Faced with all this, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Romney and his allies are resorting to the same national security smear tactics I faced in 2004. We have to take it seriously. Forward this email to your friends, and encourage them to join us on the Truth Team today:

Thanks for fighting back — forewarned is forearmed!

John

Senator John Kerry
Massachusetts (Emphasis added.)

The Truth Team “fact checks” the video? It probably did the best it could with what it had by “playing the man, not the ball.”

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About danmillerinpanama

I was graduated from Yale University in 1963 with a B.A. in economics and from the University of Virginia School of law, where I was the notes editor of the Virginia Law Review in 1966. Following four years of active duty with the Army JAG Corps, with two tours in Korea, I entered private practice in Washington, D.C. specializing in communications law. I retired in 1996 to sail with my wife, Jeanie, on our sailboat Namaste to and in the Caribbean. In 2002, we settled in the Republic of Panama and live in a very rural area up in the mountains.
I have contributed to Pajamas Media and Pajamas Tatler. In addition to my own blog, Dan Miller in Panama, I an an editor of Warsclerotic and contribute to China Daily Mail when I have something to write about North Korea.

About me

I was graduated from Yale University in 1963 with a B.A. in economics and from the University of Virginia School of law, where I was the notes editor of the Virginia Law Review in 1966. Following four years of active duty with the Army JAG Corps, with two tours in Korea, I entered private practice in Washington, D.C. specializing in communications law. I retired in 1996 to sail with my wife, Jeanie, on our sailboat Namaste to and in the Caribbean. In 2002, we settled in the Republic of Panama and live in a very rural area up in the mountains.

I have contributed to Pajamas Media and Pajamas Tatler. In addition to my own blog, Dan Miller in Panama, I an an editor of Warsclerotic and contribute to China Daily Mail when I have something to write about North Korea.